BGS Career Development

Making It Count!

Announcements

The Penn Graduate Consulting Club (PGCC) – 6th Annual Case Competition

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The Penn Graduate Consulting Club (PGCC) is hosting its 6th annual case competition on Friday April 26th at Jon M. Huntsman Hall of The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. The case competition is a great opportunity to use your analytical skills to solve a business problem.

Applications are now open. You must apply as a team with 3-5 members. If you do not have a full team, you may list your information in this sheet and search for other team members. Once you have successfully formed a team, use the application link to apply.

The deadline for applications is Sunday April 14th 11:59 PM EST. For more information on the case competition, please see the PGCC website, and to stay up to date on PGCC events, please subscribe to their mailing list.

Upcoming CTL Workshops

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Giving and Receiving Constructive Criticism
Dr. Stephen DiNardo, Cell and Developmental Biology and Katerina Placek, CTL Graduate Fellow, Neuroscience
April 25, 2019, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
BRB 0501 (5th floor conference room)

You have worked hard on a set of experiments and on drawing conclusions from them.  Intellectually, you know that receiving feedback from peers and mentors on those experiments is central to your progress.  But, hearing criticisms can be tough, especially given the investment you have made.  Reciprocally, delivering critiques to a colleague in a manner that will help them can be just as tricky. In this workshop with Dr. Stephen DiNardo, attendees will engage in activities and lively discussion to develop ‘best practices’ for giving and receiving constructive criticism. Come and join to build on valuable communication skills that will serve you throughout your scientific career! 

Counts toward the CTL Teaching Certificate.
RSVP here
Contact placekk@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for more information.

Communicating your Science with Confidence
Dr. Nandita Mitra, Biostatistics, and Katerina Placek, CTL Graduate Fellow, Neuroscience
May 7 2019, 10:00 am to 11:00 am
BRB 0501 (5th floor conference room)

Public presentation of one’s work – whether at a lab meeting, conference, poster symposium, or thesis defense – is a challenge regularly faced by BGS students and is often accompanied by nerves and jitters. How can BGS students conquer nervousness to confidently present their work to others? Dr. Nandita Mitra will lead an engaging workshop to help attendees communicate their science with confidence, focusing on ‘tips and tricks’ to use for preparation, presentation, and managing feedback when publicly communicating your science. If you have a public presentation coming up or have dealt with presentation-related nervousness in the past, then this workshop is for you!

Counts toward the CTL Teaching Certificate.
RSVP here.
Contact placekk@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for more information.

BGSA & BGS Alumni Networking Happy Hour

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Are you interested in learning more about how you can apply your Ph.D. training to careers beyond the bench? BGSA and BGS are hosting a mixer event so that you can interact with former BGS trainees who have gone on to be successful in alternate careers! Join us for drinks, food, and great conversation with our alums! RSVP to secure your spot in this event!

Friday, April 26, 2019, 4:00 – 6:00 PM

Jordan Medical Education Center Lobby

Please RSVP here – note that registration will be closed at 50 participants.

Email Rebecca Lopez for more information, or if you are no longer able to attend.

BGS Improv Workshop Series

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Do you want to improve your science communication skills? Do you wish you found it easier to ask questions in crowded seminars and at conferences? Do you want to become a more confident networker?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you should attend the free BGS improv workshop in April and May. Improv is not stand-up comedy; it is acting without a script. It’s about think on one’s feet, solving problems as they come, authentic and effective communication, projecting confidence, facilitating team work, and not worrying about making mistakes. These are transferable skills that we need both in the lab and when communicating our science to our colleagues and the public. This 5-week workshop, led by professional instructor Sharon Geller, will provide a supportive environment for us to explore the improv techniques, stretch our communication muscles, and more importantly, have FUN!

Quick details:

Tuesdays (April 16th – May 13th) 5:30-7:30PM

Room 425 Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center

Instructor: Sharon Geller (Improv instructor at the Walnut street Theater)

We have limited capacity. If you are interested, please fill out this application form: https://forms.gle/BaPNcF64GqChLry77

If you have question, please contact Yunshu Fan: yunshuf@pennmedicine.upenn.edu

Workshop planning committee: Yunshu Fan, Rebecca Somach, Patti Murphy

BGS Professional Skills Series: “Informational Interviews”

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Next up in the BGS Professional Skills Series: “Informational Interviews”! This talk will take place Tuesday, April 16, 2019  from 4:00 – 5:00 PM in Barchi Library (140 John Morgan). Co-hosted by PGWISE and EE Just. Light refreshments will be served!

Dr. Helen N. Pho, Associate Director at Penn Career Services, will address the following topics:

  • How to prepare for an informational interview, including what questions to ask
  • How to create a good impression when answering the “tell me about yourself” question
  • How to ensure that your networking conversation is beneficial to you and meaningful for the professional

To register, click here or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser:

https://forms.gle/GtwJL5zcoeTMApy2A

If you have any questions, please contact Rebecca Lopez.

NEW! Career Path Alumni Videos

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As a reminder, the BGS Career Development Site extends beyond this Career Blog and features a wide variety of resources, from a description of the Core Competencies developed through predoctoral training to websites for career exploration. Noteworthy among the site’s resources is the ‘Career Paths’ section, which provides a description of the profession, advantages of an advanced degree, key competencies, on-campus student organizations, first steps, alumni videos, and resources.

Two new alumni videos have been uploaded to the site. Aaron Gitler, Professor at Stanford University, and Josh Friedman, Director and Lead at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., share insights on their respective fields of academic and industry research. The BGS alumni describe their typical day, the things they like most and least about their chosen career, the typical traits and skills required, and much more.